I am very interested to find out what the differences will be between a Hogwarts built on flat land and a Hogwarts built on a mountain as in Hollywood. In some ways I think the Hollywood version has the potential to look even more authentic than the Orlando version (similar to the castle in Disneyland Paris) because of it's terrain. The logistics of the build are interesting as well, without everything on the same level.

Robert Niles, bar none you are the man with all of the scoops with anything going on at Universal. It's like you are hooked into the owl post and they send you all the messages of what's going on. I love it!

Do you think you could possibly share a few things about what the Universal version of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts will be like? For a while, there was a rumor there would be a restaurant in Hollywood that would look like the dining hall at Hogwards, like in the movies, with the floating candles and everything.

Are they building that? I wonder what other things they learned from the original Hogsmeade that they are incorporating into the Hollywood version.

I have to tell you that when my family goes to California we never bother to do Universal. We do Disneyland for a day, then DCA for a day, and then we do other things around LA when my husband is at a convention he goes to every year. Now that Harry Potter will be at Universal in California, we will be spending at least part of a day in this park. So, building Potter got us to start buying tickets to go to a place we never visited before. I am very excited to see what they do here.

Any scoop from your magical owl post on what differences we can expect?

USH is already on a mountain. There is no approach as if you're Harry Potter. Being on a mountain is no added advantage, but the construction site looks huge so I am hopeful the castle is more full sized than the Orlando counterpart.

I am talking more about the challenge of building on a mountain. It is much simpler to build on flat land because you are only dealing with one dimension. With a mountainside, suddenly there are sloped paths, stairs, and multiple levels of buildings as appears to be the case with this construction. I think it provides a challenge not seen in other Harry Potter attractions.